Honing guides have long been available for holding chisels and plane blades at a predetermined angle relative to a planar abrasive surface, such as the surface of a sharpening stone or a sheet abrasive material affixed to a flat surface such as plate glass. Such commercially available guides generally have wheels or a wide roller that rolls over the abrasive surface or another parallel reference surface and a means for fixing the chisel or plane blade to the guide during use. Some of the prior art guides engage the sides of the chisel or plane blade in a clamping arrangement, and other of the prior guides use a clamping screw to apply force to one face of the chisel or plane blade to force it against guide structure in contact with the other face of the chisel or plane blade.
It is well known in the prior art that a sharp edge can be created more quickly by forming a first bevel on a plane blade or a chisel with a relatively coarse, fast cutting abrasive and then using a finer abrasive, which is therefore slower cutting, to form a micro bevel immediately adjacent to the cutting edge or arris of the blade or chisel at a slightly steeper angle than the principal bevel. This can be accomplished, for instance, by putting a shim under the wheels or roller associated with the honing guide (where the guide separates the roller a substantial distance from the blade bevel) or by adjusting the position of the axis of rotation of the wheels or rollers to slightly lift the guide as taught by U.S. Pat. No. 4,733,501.
While prior honing guides are very useful tools, several aspects of the functionality of these jigs can be improved.
For instance, recent reintroduction of manufacture of number 8 jointer bench planes creates a need for honing jigs able to accommodate the 2- 5/8  inch wide plane blades of such planes, and many currently available honing guides cannot accept blades of that width.
It is also desirable to provide enhanced ability to select bevel angles within the range of such angles typically used, approximately 20 degrees to 40 degrees. It is also desirable to properly locate the entire cutting edge or arris relative to the guide, because some prior guides make it easy for the arris to be located out of square with the guide.
It is desirable to make the honing guide and its blade bevel setting functionality useable with skew chisels.
Many prior art honing guides secure the chisel or plane blade in the guide by reference to the longitudinal tool face surface adjacent to the bevel. This happens, for instance, in a guide where a bench chisel is positioned bevel down and a thumbscrew above the chisel presses against the back face or underside of the chisel, forcing the opposite, top side of the chisel against a guide reference surface. The cutting arris on such a chisel is defined, however, by the intersection of the bevel with the back face of the chisel, against which the thumbscrew presses. The way these prior art honing guides secure the tool being honed is not a problem if the back face and the opposite, front face or top surface are parallel, but they often are not. Additionally, longitudinal bevels on the sides of relatively narrow bench chisels cause this top surface to be quite narrow, which introduces additional difficulty associated with use of it as a reference surface because the chisel may “rock” to one side or the other when it is being secured in the honing guide.
It is desirable to provide a honing guide with enhanced clamping to prevent the tool from skewing while the honing guide is in use. Most existing clamping devices use a single, large screw with a swiveling pad to hold the tool in position. No matter how much pressure is applied to clamp the tool, relatively little force is need to rotate the tool about the axis of the screw.
Another consideration associated with honing guides is the range of bevel angles that can be formed using the guide. Many guides provide a range of angles of approximately 20° to 40°, and it is sometimes desirable to be able to hone either smaller or larger angles.